To learn about new manufacturing technologies and educate your shop floor workers, does your company prefer to use online resources such as webinars, or does it send people off site to trade shows, conferences and seminars?
We typically try to attend tradeshows annually to stay informed of new developments and technologies within our industry. In the past we have used
webinars, attended conferences and seminars for training and information purposes.
—Mark Godin, fabrication manager, Baumeier Corp., Cambridge, ON
We sent our employees offsite for training. It cost more, but then they are not distracted from what is happening and can give their full attention to what they are being trained on.
—J.S. (Jeff) McKinnon, CIM Metals Inc., Burlington, ON
If the training is very specific and does not take a lot of time, we use online resources and train people in a group. If the training is going to be of any duration, we would send them off site.
—Gord Cameron,Hewitt (Brockville) Ltd., Brockville, ON
The question asked has two parts, technology and education. To keep up to speed on technology advances, we do attend some trade shows. This involves one to three people usually. We are also in regular contact with our machine and process equipment suppliers and they are always showing us what’s new and trying to sell it to us. While we do some online research, I wouldn’t
say that we use online training very often.
As far as the education piece, I would say that most times we have one to two people who are subject matter experts and we deliver in-house training from them to the rest of the organization. We may send one to two people out to get their training, but not usually any more than that would do external training.
—Greg Gale, general manager,David W. Wilson Manufacturing Ltd., Cathcart, ON
We have previously sent people off site but we are now trending more towards online, as we do not have the travel expense costs, or travel time. Also this way we can have more of a group involved.
—Deborah Butzer, accounting/HR administrator, James Ross Ltd.,Elizabethtown, ON
